Here's a stunning accomplishment. The Tesla Roadster set a record by traveling 313 miles on one electric charge. The new record was set at the 2009 Global Green Challenge in Australia.

The competition was over an 1,800 mile course. The Tesla Roadster reportedly had three miles worth of charge to spare. This was well above the average 244 miles per charge it mentions in its specs.

The winning driver was Simon Hackett, managing director of Australian national broadcasting company. He owns the only Tesla Roadster in Australia and now holds the world's record, having beaten the previous record of 241 miles set in April at Rallye Monte Carlo of Energies Alternatives.

Venture capital investment in clean technology grew 10% from the second quarter to the third this year. According to a report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte, 134 companies received investments of $1.59 billion – up from $1.2 billion in the second quarter. The sector's upward trajectory continues, with last quarter marking the second in a row of double-digit growth. In the first quarter of 2009, venture capital investment in cleantech companies hit a low of $1 billion.

The strong third quarter has made the cleantech sector the largest in the venture capital business, according to the Cleantech Group, pulling ahead of biotech. Twenty-seven percent of venture capital funds invested in the second quarter of 2009 went to cleantech companies – up from 3% at the beginning of 2004.

He discovered global warming; he created the Internet; and his wife shielded my young ears from curse words when I was growing up. Now Al Gore has decided it is time to single-handedly rescue the automotive world. Okay, not really, but Al Gore is a major backer of California-based Fisker Automotive, which has just secured a $529 million government loan to build a hybrid sports car in Finland.

Couple of problems here, but let's start with the idea of the car. I am so glad that Fisker is going to help the earth. I mean, who doesn't want to conserve fuel and reduce air pollution while cruising around in their four-door sports car? I mean, who doesn't have an extra $89,000 lying around to spend on transportation? Seriously, it is now at the point that only celebrities can afford a hybrid car that doesn't look like it was built of Lego.

The Energy Department is set to lend money to Ford (NYSE: F), Tesla, and Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY), according to the Associated Press. The report cites anonymous sources, with the official announcement set for today in Dearborn, Michigan.

Reportedly, Ford has asked to receive $5 billion in loans by 2011, although the sources were not certain on how much money the automaker would receive. Nissan's requested amount was undisclosed and Tesla has reportedly asked for $450 million. The loan program the automakers are trying to tap into was approved by Congress last year in order to help car companies and suppliers develop green vehicles and components (such as the advanced battery) and help automakers meet the new fuel-efficiency standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Ed Begley, Jr. will soon have more options should he be in need of a new electric car. Daimler AG has announced the acquisition of an equity stake of nearly 10% in Tesla Motors (not to be confused with these guys -- five man electrical band, indeed).

The German-based automaker is teaming up with the California company to work on making electric cars "a reality." Tesla is a visionary on the electric-car front; its Roadster, which runs on battery power, is the only electric vehicle approved for highway use in both Europe and North America. (Of course, it also comes with a price tag of $101,500 -- you'd have to save a lot on gas to make up for not buying a Taurus).

Sister blog to Bloggingstocks, Autoblog, has posted that Digg.com's founder Kevin Rose uploaded pics of the Tesla Model S to Flickr and is featuring a gallery of the leaked photos.

The Model S is an electric car following up on the innovative Tesla Roadster, and bears a $57,400 price tag. More details about the car are expected shortly. The Model S is expected to be available for purchase in 2012, the Roadster can be purchased now.

Tesla Motors has certainly put out another shot across the bows of other car manufacturers.

Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk said at a conference recently that he plans to take the electric car maker public by the end of 2008. Without having had an opportunity to look at the financials -- there hasn't yet been a registration statement or prospectus -- I would say that this is exactly the kind of IPO that investors should avoid.

I know, it's exciting and new. It's technology. It's stuff that could change an entire industry and quite possibly the world. As Musk said, "Thirty years from now the majority of new cars will be pure electric, not hybrid."

Exactly. Just like Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR). And all those internet stocks. And the hundreds of exciting new car makers a hundred years ago that captured the fancy of investors before they ended in bankruptcy.

This post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Also check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Do you want one? I want one. But the Tesla Roadster all-electric sports car, rumored to be coming out early next year, is sold out already. I have seen it on television and in several automotive and business journals, and it is an eye-catching, true sports car. And an environmentally friendly sports car, if you believe its billing. They also say it will go from 0 to 60 in under four seconds!

Imagine that: fast, good-looking and energy-efficient (245-mile range on a single charge)! But if you can't get one, what good is it? Well, you can't get one right away, but if you're patient and can swing the $98,000 price tag, rumor has it by the end of 2008, you might get lucky.

The firm was started in the summer of 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard (former CEO) and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos; Elon Musk -- former PayPal president, and now chairman of Space X, who can afford just about anything -- is also now chairman of Tesla Motors.